Venezuela's Social Christian party Copei is scheduled to hold a national convention at which will discuss change of statutes to allow independents to run on Copei presidential ticket.

An exhibition of achievements by overseas and domestic Chinese is expected to take place in Beijing.

On the horizon

On Thursday, September 18, the devolution referendum for Wales is scheduled to take place, with Wales voting on whether to give the country independent rule within United Kingdom.

On Friday, September 19, a new anti-smoking law is scheduled to take effect in Taiwan, with fines administered for smoking in public areas.

On Saturday, September 20, Czech President Vaclav Havel is scheduled to visit Jordan.

On Sunday, September 21, Serbia is scheduled to hold presidential elections.

On Monday, September 22, President Clinton is scheduled to address the 52nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

On this day

In 1631, in the Thirty Years War, a force of 40,000 Swedes and Protestant Germans under Gustav Adolphus defeated 44,000
Imperialists led by the Count of Tilly at the battle of
Breitenfeld near Leipzig. The Imperialists lost over 8,000
killed.

In 1778, the first treaty between the United States and Indian tribes was signed at Fort Pitt.

In 1787, 39 delegates from 12 of the 13 states of the
Union signed the Constitution of the United States.

In 1796, President George Washington delivered his farewell
address to the American people. He had been president since
1789.

In 1809, the Treaty of Fredrikshamm ended the Russo-Swedish
war, ceding Finland to Russia.

In 1862, the Battle of Antietam in the U.S. Civil War halted
the Confederate advance into the North in one of the bloodiest fights of the war.

In 1871, the Mont Cenis Tunnel, the first of the great tunnels through the Alps to be completed, was opened.

In 1900, Queen Victoria signed the document which united the
six colonies as the Federal Commonwealth of Australia. This came into effect on January 1, 1901. The Earl of Hopetoun was named as the first Governor-General.

In 1931 , the first long-playing record to rotate at 33-1/3 rpm was demonstrated by the RCA Victor company in New York.

In 1935, Manuel Quezon y Molina was elected first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, established under U.S. tutelage.

In 1944, the failed "Operation Market Garden" began with
British airborne troops being dropped at Arnhem. The aim was to capture bridges over Dutch rivers, outflanking the German
defensive line.

In 1957, in Thailand, the government of Field-Marshal Pibul
Songgram was overthrown in a bloodless coup by General Sarit
Thanarat.

In 1961 , former Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes,
overthrown in a coup in 1960, was hanged by the new military
rulers.

In 1972, Uganda announced that Tanzanian forces, later said to be Ugandan exiles, had crossed the border and captured three towns before being removed by Ugandan troops.

In 1978, the Camp David summit between Jimmy Carter, Anwar
Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel ended with a
framework for a peace treaty.

In 1980, General Anastasio Somoza Debayle, former president of Nicaragua, was assassinated in Paraguay where he was in exile.

In 1988, in Haiti the government of General Henri Namphy was
deposed in a coup d'etat and General Prosper Avril declared
himself president.

In 1991, the General Assembly admitted North and South Korea,
Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as members of the U.N.

In 1994, Sir Karl Popper, one of the 20th century's most
respected philosophers, died aged 92.

Newslink

More than a decade after it hit the United States, the AIDS epidemic has taken a devastating turn into a new segment of society: younger women who date
older men. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that women now account for 20 percent of all adults with AIDS. To find out more about the AIDS prevention, click here.